


Come Whatever

by ashes0909



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Goodbyes, Graduation, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 07:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14785838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashes0909/pseuds/ashes0909
Summary: They’d said goodbye a hundred times already, but Tony knew he’d say it as many times as Steve wanted.





	Come Whatever

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the beta Ferret. <3
> 
> Title comes from the timeless Graduation song by Vitamin C

Tony walked up the path along the side of the football field, behind the bleachers and down the row of trees that separated the school grounds from the lake. There was only one tree with a trunk thick enough to lean against, and that was where he was heading. 

It seemed as if no one else was around, the rest of their graduating class out on the front lawn, where the rows of fold-out chairs and the stage were set up for graduation. But he knew he wouldn’t be alone back here. Not today, when the clock was ticking and they were both due on planes in opposite direction in a day's time. And this was the last time they’d be on their high school campus together.

Steve Rogers was a burly teen. By the end of senior year, the span of his shoulders nearly doubled Tony’s. When Tony had first laid his head upon them, years before, Steve’s collarbone had bit into his cheek. But now, if he were to rest there, Tony knew he would settle in that dip of muscle between his shoulder and his pec that felt like home. 

Steve was sitting against the tree with one leg out in front of him and one bent at the knee. It made his graduation gown stretch against his legs. He looked up at Tony and, ever since they’d Decided, every time Steve saw him, his breath caught in his throat, a startled jolt that was a slap in the face against the endless ease they once had. Fuck, even here by this tree - especially here, where Tony should be resting in between those long legs, watching Bucky’s team run around the field or reading a book to one another - Steve was startled by Tony.

Steve made that gasp, his hands clenching around his graduation cap that rested in his lap. They’d said goodbye a hundred times already, but Tony knew he’d say it as many times as Steve wanted. Meet in the trees behind the Stark Estate or stand in the alley behind Steve’s apartment,  _ goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.   _

“I was waiting for you,” Steve smiled, but it was tight, pulled at either end by the unrelenting reality of their circumstance. “Not for very long though.”

Tony smirked, and it felt like his heart was being squeezed as he prepared to say the familiar reply. “You may have longer legs, but I’ll never be that far behind you.” Though really, soon, Tony would be hours ahead of Steve, no matter what. The thought twisted at his gut as he folded onto the grass. He was never good at keeping his sadness in, keeping any emotion to himself, when it came to Steve. “At least, until we both leave.”

Steve groaned, and Tony didn’t have to look to know he was banging his head against the tree. It was a damaging habit, and one he’d found Steve doing far too many times, after a particularly difficult midterm, or enraging interaction with Brock Rumlow.  Tony kept his gaze on the grass. It was easier than seeing Steve’s twisted in frustration. 

“Tony, --” Steve reached out, kept his hand hovering over Tony’s back until he nodded. The formality, the asking, all of it, soured how good it felt to have Steve’s hand on him once more, so large that it rubbed half his back in one stroke. Tony wanted to collapse into it, and probably would’ve if Steve hadn’t been so cautious about touching him in the first place. 

“This is hard,” he told the grass, and Steve’s reply was the miserable, affectionate sigh he used when he thought Tony was being petulant. Tony ached at the sound, and Steve must’ve seen it because he pulled Tony against his chest and wrapped his arms around him. 

Tony’s eyes closed against the rush of tears stinging the back of his eyes. Being here in his arms... Steve felt too good, too right; it was home in a person. And he’d found this, what all the books talked about, what the songs sang about, and Tony was a scientist, but he didn’t need to run an experiment here. He didn’t need the scientific method to determine that Steve Rogers was his soulmate.

Except that was what they were doing, what they’d agreed to during there Lake Accords - named after the location they had their Very Mature Break Up conversation - where they decided that they were young, and thus should be wild and carefree. Tony was off to MIT and Steve to USC, and if they tried to make it work, they’d still be breaking down in each other’s arms right now, but for completely different reasons. 

The heartache of having each other but not. Being there for someone, but only to a point. They tried it, three times in fact, when Tony was away in robotics sleepaway camp between his high school years. Tony remembered how waiting for his skype call with Steve felt, a small part of him sad he was missing out on whatever event the camp had going on that evening. 

Four years of that? Of breaking each other apart when they were supposed to be growing, and learning-- or whatever the admissions manuals said to let parents feel comfortable sending their prides-n-joys hundreds of miles away. 

It’d break them, eventually, one way or another. 

Steve had been running his fingers up and down Tony’s arms, resting his cheek on top of his head. Tony wondered if he knew he was humming, a purr-like sound that let him know Steve was deep in thought. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever know anyone else as well as I know you.” 

The fingers stopped their journey under the sleeve of his gown. “You’re going to keep knowing me. We’ll still--You know that we’re going to still talk, we decided--”

“I know. We will.” Tony pulled out a blade of grass and started twisting it between his fingers. “But if-- No, when, one of us starts moving on… You know, it’s college. And you’re gorgeous, I bet you get the Orientation Leader’s phone number written on the corner of your welcoming packet with little hearts all around it. I’m not dumb. In fact, I’m a genius, so I can tell you that neither one of us is going to want to hear the details of the other one's…. experimentation.”

He didn’t expect Steve to nuzzle his face into his neck and chuckle. 

“What?’ Tony asked, aware his pout could be heard in the word. 

“The way you think I’m going to want  _ anyone’s _ digits anytime soon, especially on the first day. You’re not that easy to get over, Tony.”

They’d been together--would have been together-- for four years this August, and Steve still managed to surprise Tony silent. It was one of the first things that attracted Steve to him. 

The wind picked up, blowing the branches above them, and Tony froze the memory in his mind. He wanted to be able to close his eyes and be right back here in this moment, warm and loved, cherished. 

“I’ll miss New York.” Steve’s words vibrated against his back. “I can’t see myself settling down anywhere else, not really.”

“You can take the boy out of Brooklyn…” Tony twisted in Steve’s arms, wanted to see him, to run his thumb along his cheek while he still could. He leaned in, slotting their lips together, because the act was as easy as breathing for Tony. When he pulled back, he rested against that dip in Steve’s chest, and closed his eyes. “Four years is a long time. But it’s not forever.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my STONY Bingo O5 square - Breaking up
> 
> Come say hi at ashes0909.tumblr.com!


End file.
